The field of the invention pertains to hairbrushes for use on human hair or other animal hair and, in particular, to hairbrushes used to groom long hair.
A constant problem with long hair is the entanglement of hair in the hairbrush bristles with repeated brushing. Eventually, the entangled hair must be removed from the bristles, which can be a tedious and frustrating effort. The difficulty can be compounded if the person using the hairbrush has limited capability with his or her fingers.
With this problem in view, a variety of hairbrushes have been developed with devices to quickly and easily remove the hair from the bristles. U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,997 discloses a bristle supporting member that is retractable and extendable within an enclosed chamber of the brush. The bristles extend through a perforated plate. A laterally extending pin is positionable in a plurality of discrete holes to provide multiple discrete bristle lengths in addition to cleaning of the bristles at the maximum retraction position.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,909, the retractable bristles are actuated by a push button acting upon a flexible resilient member inside the hollow brush. Pushing on the button extends the bristles and latches the button. Sliding back the button slightly allows the button to unlatch and release the bristles to retract into the brush thereby cleaning the bristles.
As distinguished from the above patents, U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,912 discloses a perforated plate movable on the bristles to clean the bristles. The bristles have enlarged tips to prevent the perforated plate from being removed from the bristles.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 319,923 discloses a brush with retractable bristles that somewhat resembles U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,909 above but does not reveal the internal retraction mechanism. Rather, the resemblance arises from the push button operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,230 and U.S. Pat. No. 1,189,698 each disclose bristles that extend and retract through curved guides. The former also discloses a wedge assembly to extend and retract the bristles by the extension and retraction of the entire brush handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,365 discloses a plurality of diagonal cam tracks that engage a plurality of pins extending from the bristle retainer. Extension and retraction of the entire handle moves the cam tracks in a direction substantially perpendicular to the bristles causing the bristles to extend and retract.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,416, a pivotable handle portion actuateable by the user causes the bristle retainer to extend the bristles when the handle is squeezed. A spring urges the bristles into the retracted position upon release of the handle; however, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,562 springs, in opposition to a handle push button, urge the bristles into extended position.
With a view toward providing a simpler more effective retractable bristle hairbrush, the following hairbrush has been developed.
The invention comprises an internal plate within the brush body to which bristles, plastic, natural or metal, are attached. The bristles extend through holes in the brush body with each hole dedicated to each individual bristle. The internal plate is attached to a wedge mechanism actuated by a link arm and wheel inside the brush body. The link arm is actuated by a sliding button in the side of the brush body. Manual actuation of the button causes the linkage to extend and retract the bristles. With full extension of the bristles, a detent latch in the brush body locks the linkage.
Modified linkages also may be used to extend and retract the bristles. In particular, an expandable linkage in either full form or half form beneath the bristles may be substituted for the wheel and wedge mechanism.
These brush designs can be used for either human or animal type hair brushes. With the bristles retracted, the hair caught in the bristles is separated from the bristles and can be easily discarded without damage to the bristles. The result is a quicker, easier, safer and more sanitary way of cleaning the brush.
Disclosed below are three versions of the new hairbrush.